Is Spotify Showcase worth it?

Author

Andrew Southworth
December 11, 2023

Hey everyone!

Today we’re going to talk about if Spotify Showcase is worth using.

This newsletter is also available as a podcast, listen on your favorite podcast platform here.

Music Marketing Monday Podcast

Actionable music marketing advice every Monday. Narrated by Andrew Southworth.

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What is Spotify Showcase?

If you haven’t heard of Spotify Showcase, essentially it’s a marketing tool on Spotify you can access directly inside of Spotify for Artists, allowing you to put ads promoting your release on the home page of the Spotify mobile app for new and existing fans.

Unfortunately right now it’s only available for artists in the USA, UK and CA.

Here’s what one of the ads look like:

Spotify Showcase examplee

You can customize that ‘Getting buzz’ headline to a few different options like ‘You might like’, ‘Seasonal vibes’ and more.

For my own music i’ve run $300 in test campaigns, but if you include other artists i’ve seen results for over $2,000 in Showcase campaigns.

But is it any good?

Spotify Showcase Campaign Data

Let’s take a look at some data for my own music, I tried $100 across 3 different campaigns:

  1. $100 for a single in the USA

  2. $100 for an album in the USA

  3. $100 for a single in Brazil

Spotify Showcase campaign example

I apologize for the data dump here, but I want to give as much information as possible so you can decide for yourself how the results went.

1: $100 USA Single

  • 251 clicks

  • 140 listeners

  • 2.14 streams per listener

  • 19.1% intent rate (aves and playlist adds)

  • Other release listeners - 4

What this means is I paid about $0.71 USD per listener in the United States. Comparing this to Facebook ads, this will sometimes be more and other times be less. You won’t always pay this much though, a client of mine got under $0.40 per listener in the United States.

This is the first time we’ve had a marketing tool directly on Spotify that can be a reasonable supplement to direct ads on social media.

2: $100 USA Album

This album did considerably better than the single in multiple ways.

  • 289 clicks

  • 186 listeners

  • 5.32 streams per listener

  • 9.68% intent rate

  • Other release listeners - 6

Right off the bat the cost per listener was only $0.53 USD, much less than the single. My guess is this could be due to the album art? Or luck?

The streams per listener was more than double, which makes sense as we promoted an album here. Specifically my 19 song album Doublethink.

The intent rate was lower, which is interesting to me. I think they only count track saves and not album saves here. When running ads I get MUCH more saves from albums than singles, however the saves are at the album level and not the single level.

One proof of that is that in this Showcase campaign we got 249 saves, which is MUCH more than the other USA campaign.

3: $100 Brazil Single

  • 589 clicks

  • 333 listeners

  • 2.05 streams per listener

  • 9.9% intent rate

  • Other release listeners - 10

Here of course the cost per listener is much less at $0.30 USD. Brazil is in general a much cheaper country to advertise to, and I think it was the cheapest country I saw on Showcase.

Aside from that the engagement was pretty much on par with the other two campaigns.

Do I recommend Spotify Showcase?

In a nutshell, yes I think Spotify Showcase is a solid marketing tool.

It doesn’t replace any marketing methods, but it does complement them quite nicely. For example, the types of people who convert on a Facebook or Instagram ad are unlikely to also be the same type of person that converts on a Showcase ad.

Spotify has done a good job between Marquee, Showcase and Discovery Mode in making sure these tools all have their own unique form and function. It doesn’t feel like one completely replaces the other.

Just keep in mind the first time you run Showcase you should try it with a smaller budget. Marketing results always vary between artists, so you want to ensure it works well for you before you spend too much money.

New Content

In this video Ben Patterson (president of Downtown Artist & Label Services) and I talk about music marketing, the music industry, Spotify’s changes and more!

Did you know you can listen to my music industry interviews on podcast platforms? Click here to listen to the Modern Music Marketing podcast.

I also make a video showing off a cool tool that makes being a music artist much easier…

News

Here are some music industry news highlights from the past week.

  • Spotify is laying off 1,500 positions, and replaced their CFO, Tidal has cut 10% of staff as well

  • Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is the first tour to gross over $1 Billion

  • The EU is working on an AI act to protect copyright owners (including musicians)

  • Shazam (owned by Apple) hit 300 million monthly active users worldwide

Quote of the Week

❝

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.

Winston Churchill

Whenever you’re ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:

  1. My courses. Spotify Growth Machine teaches you how to use Facebook ads to promote your music on Spotify. YouTube Growth Machine teaches you how to grow a YouTube channel organically and how to use YouTube ads. Fan Growth Machine teaches you how to build a website, online store and grow your email list.

  2. My ad agency. Forbid Media specializes in running Facebook conversion ads to promote your music on Spotify.

  3. Website / Store / Funnels. MusicFunnels is the best all-in-one platform for music artists to make a website, online store, sales funnels and build their mailing list.

  4. 1-on-1 consulting. You can book 1-hour calls with myself or Alex Bochel here.

My Links:

Discount / Affiliate Links:

If you’d rather just purchase the e-book, or physical book or audiobook you can do so here.

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